


The Shimmer of Your Smile

by ambiguously



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arranged Marriage, F/M, Jedi Ben Solo, Married Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey Palpatine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:34:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26244226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ambiguously/pseuds/ambiguously
Summary: Rey's grandfather orders her to marry the young Senator from Alderaan. Rey is not pleased about this.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 40
Kudos: 137
Collections: Alternate Universe Exchange 2020





	The Shimmer of Your Smile

**Author's Note:**

  * For [frozensea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/frozensea/gifts).



Rey nodded absently and offered practiced, false smiles to each person who congratulated her at the reception. For her own amusement, she counted the guests whose smiles didn't reach their eyes, or eyestalks, or eyespots, and gave up after fifty. Her gaze kept being distracted by the slim bracelet clasping her wrist, forged of precious metals and glittery with gemstones. Grandfather had insisted, calling it an old Naboo ritual. Rey had never heard of such a thing, but Naboo was long gone, obliterated by her grandfather's first Death Star, and now they were all that remained of its culture and people.

"Thank you," she said to another guest.

Almost all.

Even as her eyes caught the shimmer of her nuptial bracelet, she caught the same twinkling on the wrist of the man standing next to her. Her husband now, although they'd only met once before today. Ben Solo's grandmother had served as the Queen of Naboo in the time of her grandfather's first elevation to power, and she'd served in the Senate at the time he had become the rightful Emperor of the galaxy. She'd died fighting him, giving her last to strike against Grandfather one final, futile time. The man standing beside Rey now bore the name of his grandmother's lover, which had to make family dinners awkward.

Rey would be expected to attend those, she realized with a sudden sharp twinge. She was having those over and over, usually when she was faced with another stray thought about how her life would change, but also several times today when she glanced at her brief fiancé who was now her spouse. 

"Thank you, we will," Ben said to two guests who'd wished them happiness in their union, and Rey nodded politely at them before they wandered towards the food.

Grandfather wasn't here today. He'd come to Rey in the small apartment on Coruscant where she'd lived since she was small. He didn't visit often. He'd been interested in her powers as a child, but his attention had been pulled away again and again, and in his later visits, she'd heard him say to one of her caretakers that her powers had dwindled with disuse, and she was of little value now. She'd felt the walls of her home close in on her then, understanding that the price of her life was whatever value she could provide as the sole surviving heir of a man who sought immortality.

"You are going to marry someone," he'd told her a week ago, pulling up the hologram without as much as a hello or inquiry about her well-being. "Ben Solo has just been named the new Senator for Alderaan due to his mother's retirement."

Rey knew how to react, making a face instantly. Alderaan had long been troublemakers in the Senate, and Grandfather's military leaders suspected they'd funded the Rebellion back before the Empire's decisive victory at Yavin Four. There were still rebels throughout the galaxy who tried to thwart him at every move, but after the loss of their base and fleet, they'd never been a viable military threat again.

"Arrest the traitors and execute them," she said, practically by rote. Saying the correct words had kept her alive this long. His earlier words filtered back into her brain. "You want me to marry him?"

Grandfather had chuckled. "You will marry him," he said. "And in this way, we will have Alderaan and thus the purse of the rebels in our pocket. I have already decreed it."

He was the Emperor, and she was his to command, and so she stood here beside this stranger, whose wrist glittered with her wedding band, and she felt little shocks of fear run through her each time she looked at him. She understood what her grandfather was ordering her to do. She wasn't some child who'd never looked at a dirty holoreel, and she'd read enough histories and romances to know daughters of high political houses were often married off to seal bargains in a form of very expensive and high class prostitution.

Rey smiled for the guests and the holonews feeds, and she clasped hands with her new in-laws, who hadn't been forced into an arrangement, who'd stolen away and married for love instead. Leia Organa hadn't gone to her wedding night with a sick ache in her stomach at disrobing in front of a stranger, hadn't dreaded what his demands would be of her while she quietly seethed and prayed to the Force for all the men in her life to die and leave her free.

"We wish you both as much happiness as we had," Leia told her now. Something in her eyes bored into Rey, as if she could see into her soul and could not decide if what she found there was worth looking at.

"Yeah," her husband said. "Best of luck, kids." He shook his son's hand, then pulled him into a quick, fierce hug. Rey watched, her eyes widening. She hadn't been hugged since her parents died. Instinctively, her arms pressed closer against herself, trying to recapture that sensation as she watched. Then Han Solo stepped back and wiped his eyes with his hand. So strange.

* * *

When the reception had reached its conclusion, the newly-married couple were escorted off the premises by smartly-uniformed stormtroopers to the skycar that awaited them. Ben slid into the driving seat without asking even as Rey reached for it. She'd always longed to fly, even a groundcar if that was all she could find, but she'd been forced to make do with simulators her whole life.

She glanced over at him again, and was struck with that electric feeling again. Flying hadn't been the only thing she had done solely via simulation, alone in her well-appointed prison.

Ben didn't speak to her during the flight back to his own apartment, high in the Coruscanti sky. Rey had been informed her possessions would be taken there during the ceremony by her caregiver droid. Everything had been arranged, from this marriage to her living space. This was how she would serve her Emperor and prove her worth to him.

They set down on the landing strip outside his balcony. He shut off the hover engine and looked at her. His eyes held the same strange depths as his mother's did. "We're here."

"I see that."

He looked at her coldly. "Your things should already be moved in to the guest room. If you need something, you can tell my droid." He raised his voice. "Threepio, get out here."

A golden protocol droid shuffled out to meet them "Hello, Master Ben! And congratulations on your wedding!"

"This is Rey. Give her whatever she asks for, short of a blaster."

"Of course." The droid, Threepio, turned to Rey. "Welcome, Mistress Rey. C3-12 has already left your things."

"Thanks."

Rey followed him to her room, waiting for the door to close before she looked around her new prison. It wasn't a large room, smaller than the bedroom she'd left behind, but high, airy windows looked out into the city. Along the opposite wall, she saw a door leading to a small 'fresher with a shower and stall. The bed was made, neat and crisp with fresh sheets. Her clothes had been hung in the wardrobe. The strange shock hit her again as she saw them there, the familiar in this unfamiliar place.

Ben's clothes were nowhere to be seen.

He'd said this was the guest room.

Rey tried the door. It opened without issue. She stepped out, pleased to have the run of the apartment. A larger cell was better. She looked around, noting the small kitchen, the generous reception area, the dining room, and two other bedrooms, smaller than hers. Another door was closed. Ben was nowhere to be seen, yet she knew he was on the other side of this door. His droid didn't follow her around. She'd thought he might but perhaps she was being watched by holocams.

She glanced at the high ceiling, then at the potted plants spread around. Alderaanian blooms, she thought. Ben's home world was famed for its beauty as well as for its revolutionaries. The watching eyes could be anywhere. They'd watch as her new husband called her to his own bedroom. Rey's face steeled. He could try.

She returned to her own room, and she found her datapads and books had been placed along the wall beside the bed. She selected her favorite, then paused and put it back. She loved stories about hero pilots from the Clone Wars, but if she was being watched, she didn't want to give something so personal away. She pulled up one of her grandfather's essays, and fighting back the yawn that always overtook her when she studied political tracts, she sat down to read.

* * *

"Mistress Rey?"

Rey woke, startled from a dream. She'd been dancing, except that hadn't been right. Fighting, but it had been like dancing, a shining blade in her hand like the old Jedi. As she blinked away the sleep from her eyes, the dream lingered a bit longer in her mind. She'd been a Jedi, jumping and darting in the thrill of battle beside several others like her, all flowing with the Force. She'd been … happy.

Self-defense brought a scowl to her face as she came completely awake. Happy? As a Jedi? The Jedi had been traitors, and her grandfather and his clone troops had saved the galaxy from their treachery. The story was in every history book she'd ever read. Her subconscious must be condemning her for consorting with traitors.

Her gaze snapped to the golden droid beside her. "Yes, what is it?"

"Dinner is served, if you are hungry."

"I'm not," she said in reflex. Her caregivers, organic and droid, had denied her food when she'd misbehaved as a child, and then as an adolescent. Rey had learned how to ignore hunger, and also how to hold her tongue.

"Very well, Mistress Rey." He scooted out stiffly. Rey almost called him back. The droid had spoken to her more than her husband. That was for the best, she decided. She wanted nothing out of this marriage, and if she was lucky, neither did he.

She went back to the boring essays. After a while, there was a hesitant knock on the door. Rey ignored it. He knocked twice more.

"I'm coming in," Ben's voice said, muffled through the door. The door panel slid open. He remained in the doorway.

Another sharp twinge. Rey didn't even have to look at him. "Yes?" she said, keeping her eyes on the datapad.

"You should eat something. You didn't eat at the reception."

"I'm not hungry." A lie. Her stomach had been growling since Threepio woke her.

Ben fixed her with a stare so hard she felt it. Rey turned her head and looked at him. She'd studied his photo in the short time between her engagement and the marriage, wanting to learn the shape of his face and the quirks of his features. She'd thought him homely, a word she'd picked up from her reading. Ben looked different in person. He'd been nervous and twitchy at the wedding, and here, now, she saw the jump of muscles under his face and flexing his hands. One of her stories described the heroine as "a creature constantly in motion," and Rey flashed upon that line again staring at her new husband.

"You don't have to go on a hunger strike. A divorce would be much easier."

A tight laugh broke free in her throat. "Grandfather would never permit that."

Ben's stare changed. "He doesn't control me. I agreed to this because it was politically expedient to appease the Emperor."

She was out of sorts, and still fearful of him, and hungry. She hadn't learned how to hold her tongue well enough, and anger had always been easy to reach for. Not so easy as to suit her grandfather's wishes back when he'd tried to train her, but easy enough. "You and everyone else."

His eyes never left her face. "You're afraid of him."

"That's not true." It was, and she didn't like it. "I love him very much." That was untrue, and she liked it even less. Rey remembered loving her parents. She held no such affection for her grandfather, and he'd seen to it that her caregivers had been switched out too often for Rey to develop a bond with any of them.

"You know I can tell every time you lie, right?"

She shot back, "You know I could have you executed, right?"

Annoyance flashed over his features. "I repeat, a divorce would be easier."

"He won't let me divorce you. He made me do this."

"So you could spy on me."

Rey's anger boiled up. "What? No! You're the spy. Your planet bartered to marry into the throne so you could get secrets from me. Sorry. I haven't got any. Grandfather hasn't been grooming me to take over, if that's what you think."

His head tilted. "I would have expected that to be another lie, but it's not, is it?"

"Why would I lie? It's the truth. Grandfather doesn't wish me to take his place." Rey was vaguely aware her grandfather was rather more interested in immortality. She was his contingency, and one he'd spent little time developing. "So your plan to merge your house with the throne won't do you any good."

"I didn't plan anything. I was ordered by the Emperor last week. Presumably he believes he can keep Alderaan in line by forcing his princess into our royal family."

He was probably correct. Rey had spent the past week wondering why her grandfather had agreed to this union, when he could have kept her locked up for the rest of her life. Something intrigued him about the potential here.

Something in the way Ben had spoken about her caught her attention. He seemed to know what she was thinking before she thought it. A shrewd politician might learn the tells of his opponents, but trying to overlay "shrewd" atop this man simply didn't fit, and Rey knew a few alternative explanations others might not consider.

"You're a Jedi."

"All the Jedi are dead, and Jedi don't marry," said Ben. "I can't be a Jedi, can I?"

"You have the Force. I don't care if you call yourself a tooka." She glanced away, thinking. Did Grandfather know this? He must. She'd looked into Ben's family history after she'd been informed of the arrangement. His father's family had been ordinary working class folk from Corellia. His mother had been adopted by the Organa family after the death of her own mother. There'd been no record of her father, but that had been common on Naboo, nothing unusual.

Everything was unusual about Ben. Rey knew her own blood sang with a mere echo of her grandfather's powers, but every sense she'd learned to use told her the man standing in her room shared those same gifts, whether he came to them by blood or by happenstance.

She reached out her hand and pulled her favorite book from the shelf with her powers. She saw no surprise on his face. "You knew I had the Force, too."

"As soon as we met. There have been rumors that your grandfather is a powerful Force user, what they used to call a Sith."

"They still do. He is a Sith Lord, the most powerful who has ever lived."

Ben relaxed against the wall, still watching her. "And you inherited those powers. But you're not trained in them. I can tell."

This was not a conversation she'd expected to have with her new husband. She'd vaguely thought dish patterns and curtains were supposed to be involved, and later, the vulgar marital duties she feared fulfilling. She doubted many new couples spent their first day together sorting out who had what magic powers.

He hadn't stopped watching her. His twitchy features had softened. "You hate him."

"I don't!" Rey said, jumping to her feet and looking around herself for the holocams. "I am loyal to the Emperor."

"He can't see you here. He can't hear you. We've kept this place free from bugs and spycams for years. You don't have to be afraid of him." He reached out towards her, then snatched his hand back. "Rey, you're safe here."

"Safe with a traitor?" The fear shook her limbs. Grandfather would know! Somehow he would know! He always found out when she was bad. "He knows your family funds the rebels."

"There aren't any rebels any longer. The Empire defeated them long ago." He said it sadly but lightly, as though reciting a historical fact, and she believed him no more than when he'd said all the Jedi were gone. He repeated, in a gentler tone than the first time, "You are safe here." He saw the disbelief on her face, and he read it too well. "You're not confined, if that's what you think. I'm not interested in keeping you prisoner, or in consummating this sham your grandfather forced us into. This is your room, not mine. If you care to leave, the door is that way. You can call a groundcar to take you anywhere you want." He gestured over his shoulder.

"I don't have anywhere to go." It was hard to say. "I don't have any family left except him, and he expects me to be here with you."

"Then you can stay, if that's what you want."

She flashed a brief anger his way. "What I want has never been relevant. I serve the will of the Emperor." The words were easy, learned under the harsh lessons of her caregivers.

"We all serve," said Ben. "Maybe we should be allowed to choose who it is we serve." The words were borderline treasonous, but his eyes on her said he wasn't afraid of what she might tell later.

"Maybe the Emperor sent me to spy on your powers. Does he know what you are?" He must know, she thought. Her grandfather knew everything.

"Who. Who I am. I'm not a what." Ben's features pulled into a glare. "Dinner is in the kitchen whenever you're ready. Eat it or don't, or fix yourself something else." He left her there without having set foot into the room.

He'd told her the truth almost all the way through. She was sure of it. He was lying about one thing, though. He did want her, his interest growing as they'd spoken. As he walked away, she realized part of her wanted him, too.

Disgust kicked her in the gut, and she closed the door.

* * *

She woke in the middle of the strange bed. Her dreams had been of Jedi again, stepping lightly together in battle, graceful and powerful and full of the Force. She woke and stretched, noting she was alone. The light streaming through the high windows of her room said it was late morning. She dressed in her favorite tunic, which hung in the wardrobe, and let herself out of the room.

Strange smells emanated from the kitchen. She followed her nose, and was confronted with the sight of her new husband, working over a hot pan of what appeared to be nuna eggs, without his shirt on.

"Good morning," he said, without turning around. "I didn't know if you wanted breakfast."

The smell was more intense here. "I'm fine, thanks."

A voice crept into her mind. For one moment, she thought it was Ben. He could see her thoughts, that much was clear. But no, this voice was oily, and too familiar, the same voice which had insinuated itself in her thoughts at odd times all through her life.

 _"Good morning, my dear. How was your wedding night?"_ Grandfather chuckled to himself.

Rey felt dirty. Ben turned from his pan and stared at her. She waved at him and closed her eyes. _"Good morning,"_ she thought back. _"It was magical, thank you for asking."_

The chuckle became a deeper laugh. He was inside her head, but she realized he couldn't read her, could only listen to what she said. It had never occurred to her to tell him something untrue. She'd never had anything to hide from him.

She could lie to him.

The possibility and the power shocked her.

_"I'm delighted you had a good time. Tell me, what is your husband doing now?"_

She looked over at Ben. He was spooning his meal onto a plate, but his attention was with Rey. _"He's cooking. Badly."_

_"Have you learned what he is, yet?"_

Who, she thought to herself, but to Grandfather, she thought, _"A terrible cook who snores."_

She felt Grandfather's amusement sour. _"Pay attention, girl. Even you should be able to keep an eye on our new friend and his activities. Serve me in this, and you will be rewarded."_ Her mind filled with vistas, rolling fields, and rushing waters. Freedom.

But if she could lie to him, even inside her mind, that meant he could lie to her as well. His promise was meaningless. Nevertheless, she thought back at him obediently, _"As you wish, Grandfather."_

His mind slithered out of hers, leaving her with the strong desire to bathe and a shaking feeling throughout her limbs. Ben had abandoned his plate and walked closer to her, not touching her.

"What happened?"

"He talks to me sometimes. He asked if I noticed anything unusual about you." Her breath caught. "I told him no. I lied to him." Her head went dizzy, and she grasped the counter top. Ben hurried to her side, taking her arms.

Burning electricity passed from his hands into her, power grounding down through her legs, and hummed deliciously between them. She gasped, seeing the same surprise on his face. They'd taken hands once briefly during the wedding, gloves grasping gloves, but he'd never touched her bare skin before. 

She pulled away from him, finding a chair, and she sat heavily.

Without a word, Ben turned from her. She thought he was upset at what had happened between them, upset at her for lying, but he went to the water tap and poured a glass, and set it in front of her.

"Thanks." She took a long drink, and felt a bit better. "What was that?"

"Water." She narrowed her eyes at him. Ben sighed. "Sometimes when you meet someone else with the Force for the first time, there's a power transfer. You're very powerful. So am I. It shouldn't happen again."

"I'm not powerful," Rey said, taking another sip of her water. "Grandfather said I hardly have any powers worth bothering with."

Ben glanced over her, and she felt the cascade of his power brushing against her with a whispering hush, feathery and intimate until it withdrew. Rey was aware all over again that he was only half-dressed. "No," he said slowly. "You have a great deal of power. You're just not trained."

That couldn't be true. Grandfather had said.... Grandfather had lied. About many things, she was coming to understand. The enormity of this new truth shook her as much as Ben's touch had. And she knew it was truth, that Ben hadn't lied. She could read him as easily as he was reading her. Rey had come to this new home terrified of the physical intimacy she'd assumed would be expected. Faced instead with a far more intrusive mental intimacy, she found herself warming to him with a delighted fascination.

She changed the subject. "Why aren't you dressed?"

"I'm due in the Senate for committee meeting in two hours. I didn't want to soil my clothes while I cooked breakfast, and I didn't want to dress twice today."

They looked at each other for a long moment. Too many thoughts rumbled through her mind, and she suspected Ben could read many of them. Her grandfather had lied to her. He did want her to spy on her new husband, and she didn't want to. She had a stronger connection with the Force than her grandfather had let on, perhaps strong enough that she'd spooked him into discontinuing her lessons out of fear she might usurp him, if Ben could be believed. She did believe him, and this had nothing to do with how distracting he was without his shirt.

She watched his lips twitch into a smirk. He'd picked up that thought.

Annoyed, she grabbed his abandoned plate and without asking, she began eating his breakfast. The eggs weren't very good, but she was ravenous. The morning sunlight caught the gems on her bracelet. Sparkling reflections coruscated through the small kitchen as her arm moved, and more reflections rejoined these as Ben shifted his stance, resting his hand close to her. The light surrounded them in a cascade that felt very much like magic.

"Tell me," she said around a mouthful of food, "can you show me how to use my powers?"

The smirk softened into a smile that lit his eyes. "Sure."


End file.
